In the Shadow Realm
by Nightcrawlerlover
Summary: Caleb finds himself in the Shadow Realm. But he soon discovers that he's not alone there...


**Hey there! :) Here's a new Buffy/Yu-Gi-Oh crossover oneshot that I cooked up one day. **

**What would happen if Caleb, the misogynistic ex-preacher and minion of the First Evil, found himself in the Shadow Realm, and suddenly encountered none other than Yami Marik, the dark side of Marik Ishtar? Well, with that question in mind, I decided to type this up. Hope you like it! :)**

**Disclaimer: Genius Joss Whedon owns Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Kazuki Takahashi (also a genius) owns Yu-Gi-Oh. I own the fanfics I cook up from time to time.**

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In the Shadow Realm

It seemed to happen quite quickly. One minute, Caleb was standing in the Guardians' Tomb in Sunnydale, California.

The next... well, Caleb felt as though something – he didn't know what – had slammed into him and knocked him unconscious and off-balance.

Caleb loosened his grip and suddenly felt himself falling into a dark abyss of some sort, as if from afar, like he'd read most people did when they were victims of the horrible crime known as rape.

Only this abyss was quite different. Come to think of it, there were only two colors – purple and black.

When Caleb looked down, he blinked as he got quite the surprise. Or a shock, maybe.

Forming around his booted feet seemed to be what looked like glass. It first appeared underneath him. Then the glass formed to his right and his left before forming at his front and finally finishing at his back.

There was what looked like a narrow hole at the top where something would fall through. And that something was usually sand.

Caleb's eyes widened as he realized what it was he now happened to be trapped in.

An hourglass. And not just any hourglass, either. This was an hourglass shaped like a pyramid.

The pyramid shape then brought back a reminder to Caleb – a memory he wished he had kept to himself.

Being in Ancient Egypt... the meeting with Maximillion Pegasus, who was the creator of Duel Monsters – which Caleb had heard so much about – and who seemed to have the ability to read his mind with the Millennium Eye (which Caleb found to be a bit unnerving, especially when coupled with that seemingly all-knowing smirk that would cross Maximillion's face more often than not, which was usually whenever he caught the look of fear in Caleb's eyes)... and, last but not least, the dreams he found himself in...

"Well, well," said a voice – one that Caleb had heard one too many times to keep track of. "Who do I have here? Looks like an ex-preacher and misogynistic evil human has entered the Shadow Realm."

When his eyes fell on the owner of the voice aimed at him, Caleb was shocked as a wave of recognition suddenly hit him in an ocean-esque fashion. He had come to the conclusion that this guy had not only dark powers, but also the aura of someone whose path was one that not even he himself wanted to cross.

The eyes that were lavender in color. The white-blonde hair that was spiked up and pointed in all directions.

His outfit was also something that Caleb had never seen before. It consisted of a long purple cape with a gold chain, similar to one worn by the Rare Hunters, a sleeveless black shirt and khaki pants. He wore gold earrings, neckwear, armbands and bracelets up his wrists.

However, what really shocked Caleb the most was a golden rod that what looked like a golden eye with two horns and an eye of some sort protruding from Yami Marik's waistband.

Caleb had heard so much about the Rare Hunters. They reminded him of the Harbingers of Death. However, unlike the Bringers (as the Harbingers were so often called), the Rare Hunters weren't swift assassins, and they didn't have their eyes sewn shut either. Also, from what Caleb had heard, the Rare Hunters knew how to communicate, and they did it very well.

Finally finding his voice, Caleb said, while doing his best to inject some bravado into the tone he used, "You! You're the powerful entity I've heard so much about – especially in a place such as this!"

"Ah, I see I'm famous already... especially where you came from, of course. My name's Yami Marik," replied Yami Marik. "And, I take it, you are none other than Caleb, the defrocked preacher and minion to the entity known as the First Evil, if you will."

He looked Caleb up and down, liking what he saw. The fear that suddenly made its appearance in Caleb's azure eyes as Yami Marik spoke. The trying to hide behind the facade of a preacher that had been defrocked. The knowledge of the darkness that, Caleb thought, had hidden itself and was unknown and unseen by everyone.

Except Yami Marik, that is. Now he knew that Yami Marik was able to see the darkness inside of him.

_Excellent, _Yami Marik thought. _This mortal, Caleb, will make a fine puppet for me to control. Also, I think I have the right punishment for what he did to those girls – namely the choir girl from Knoxville, Tennessee and Betty, who he killed before being approached by none other than the First Evil, of which I know about, and then coming to Sunnydale. He will sit at my feet. I will make him into my servant, and he will call me ‛Master'._

Caleb saw the look in Yami Marik's eyes, and had the strangest feeling that he wasn't taking a liking to what he was currently seeing.

Not one bit at all. In fact, Caleb had actually found someone that he was scared of himself – if such a thing could happen, of course.

**Later on...**

Yami Marik was now pacing around a bed with red pillows and black satin sheets, while Caleb lay face-down on the bed. The pyramid-shaped hourglass with the golden sand that sapped away a person's memories had since disappeared, as Yami Marik had something better for Caleb planned, anyway.

The ex-preacher's hands were tied to the golden headboard by the wrists, and he was stripped to the waist. But what delighted Yami Marik the most was the sight of blood as it ran in rivers down either side of Caleb's head. The stains left behind by the blood couldn't be seen when they were absorbed by the sheets. After all, red blood and black bedsheets didn't exactly go together too well.

"Serves you right, doesn't it, Caleb?" Yami Marik said in a tone that was almost like a purr from a cat as he stopped pacing and sat down next to Caleb. "Honestly, a mere mortal such as yourself should know better than to mess with a powerful being like me."

He lifted a tanned hand and placed it on Caleb's back. Caleb flinched upon feeling Yami Marik's caramel-colored fingers lightly stroking his back. He did his best to force himself to stay still, while his hands gripped the bars of the headboard. He didn't want this man, or demon – or whatever he was – touching and stroking him in this way. Not ever!

So why was he almost... enjoying it? Caleb didn't know. He wasn't sure.

Yami Marik then spoke. "You know, Caleb, I've heard so much about these Harbingers of Death. How they're assassins, too. Swift and deadly," he remarked while pulling his hand away from Caleb's back. "How very intriguing, in my view."

A look of shock passed over Caleb's handsome features. "How'd you know about-" he said, only to be cut off by Yami Marik pressing a tanned finger to his lips.

"It's quite simple, Caleb," replied Yami Marik. "I just know. Call it ‛male intuition', of course." He smirked at the surprise on Caleb's visage. Caleb had not been hoping to hear something like that. Not at all.

"Oh, and by the way," he added after a moment's thought as though he had just remembered something important, "don't even try to do to me what you did to that boy, Alexander ‛Xander' Harris, whom I have heard so much about. It'll take much more than just losing one eye to bring me down or make me lose my cool, you know."

_How did he know about that? _Caleb wondered as he drew in a frightful breath.

As though reading his thoughts, Yami Marik smirked. "Oh, I forgot," he said, his voice having now taken on a casual tone. "You see, here in the Shadow Realm, I have the power of telepathy. Or, as you mortals call it, ‛mind reading'. And that is quite something, I would say."

Caleb blinked as his brain processed all the information given to him. Telepathy? Then he remembered that the power of telepathy wasn't something new to him at all. He had heard of it, as well as how vampires were immune to its power, with the exception of the cases of powerful telepaths.

In fact, he had heard a story that involved Buffy and a battle between two demons that didn't have mouths and preferred to communicate with their thoughts, and how she had defeated one of them, but then had accidentally gotten scratched on the back of her hand by the other. Luckily, before Buffy was driven to the brink of insanity by it (as she wasn't used to it and it was quite painful), Angel, Buffy's then-boyfriend, had killed the second demon in order to get its heart, which he then used to make an antidote for Buffy to drink, thus curing her of the telepathy power.

And that had taken place long before he came to Sunnydale, too.

Shaking his head mentally, Caleb then pulled himself back to his current situation and felt Yami Marik's gaze on him.

"Please," Caleb whispered, "let me go. I don't like it here."

Yami Marik narrowed his amethyst gaze. This mortal was asking to be set at liberty? _I don't think so. It's time he learned what it means for a person who tortures to experience that feeling of being in the victim's shoes and seeing what it's like to have others inflict pain on him._

"I don't think so, you idiotic mortal," he hissed, his smirk now replaced by a glare as he looked at Caleb.

Caleb's scared look soon returned, and at the same time, he realized something. _This is probably how this guy's victims __must've felt when they were sent __to this place – fearful, worried and longing to get back home._

However, in the Shadow Realm, Yami Marik's torture of the former preacher Caleb wasn't finished.

In truth, and unfortunately for Caleb, it was just beginning...

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**Well, I hope you liked reading this as much as I did writing it. I decided to leave the ending of this crossover as an "open" ending because an open ending for a story does inspire a writer to cook up their own version of what happens next. (I got the idea of that from reading the BtVS/Harry Potter crossover "****Ass Kicking Is Just Another Way Full title inside" –**** aka ****Ass Kicking is Just Another Way to Describe Foreplay –**** which was written by ****Sheilynn ****for the** **FFA 30 at T****wisting the ****H****ellmouth and has the pairing of Buffy Summers and Lucius Malfoy.**

**Anyway, nice feedback is very much appreciated, of course. :)**


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